Public holidays 2027: what do employers need to arrange?

Last updated: October 2026

In 2027, Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, just like 1 May. And 15 August is a Sunday. If your business works Monday to Friday, you will need three substitute days next year, and the notice setting them out must be posted before 15 December 2026.

If you do not set anything, the law decides for you: the public holiday moves to the first normal working day after it. Even if that day is a bad fit for your schedule.

In this article: which public holidays fall in 2027, which ones you must replace, how to set substitute days correctly, what to do with bridge days, when your staff may work on a public holiday and what that costs.

In short: in 2027, 1 May, 15 August and 25 December fall at the weekend. In a five-day week from Monday to Friday, you replace them with three working days in 2027, and you post a signed and dated notice before 15 December 2026. If someone works on a public holiday, they get paid compensatory rest within six weeks and you notify the Supervision of Social Legislation.

Which public holidays fall in 2027?

Belgium has ten statutory public holidays (FPS Employment, accessed 22 October 2026). In 2027, three of them fall at the weekend: 1 May and 25 December on a Saturday, 15 August on a Sunday (Securex, accessed 22 October 2026). Two public holidays fall on a Thursday, Ascension Day on 6 May and Armistice Day on 11 November, so the Friday after each becomes a bridge day.

Public holiday	Date in 2027	Day
New Year's Day	1 January	Friday
Easter Monday	29 March	Monday
Labour Day	1 May	Saturday
Ascension Day	6 May	Thursday
Whit Monday	17 May	Monday
National Day	21 July	Wednesday
Assumption Day	15 August	Sunday
All Saints' Day	1 November	Monday
Armistice Day	11 November	Thursday
Christmas Day	25 December	Saturday

Community holidays, such as 11 July for the Flemish Community, are not statutory public holidays. They are only compulsory in the sectors or businesses that make them a day off (Securex, FPS Employment, accessed 22 October 2026).

Which public holidays must you replace in 2027?

You replace every public holiday that falls on a Sunday or on a normal day of inactivity in your business. If you work Monday to Friday, that means three days in 2027: Saturday 1 May, Sunday 15 August and Saturday 25 December. The substitute day falls on a normal working day and itself becomes a public holiday. That is how the Public Holidays Act of 4 January 1974 guarantees ten public holidays a year (FPS Employment, Securex, accessed 22 October 2026).

A different working arrangement

The number of substitute days depends on your working arrangement. In a six-day week, you only replace the public holidays that fall on a Sunday: in 2027, that is just 15 August. If your full-time employees work Monday to Thursday, you also replace the public holidays that fall on a Friday. In 2027, 1 January is then added, and you need four substitute days.

If several full-time arrangements run side by side, each employee gets the substitute days of their own arrangement. If your business operates every day of the week, like a hospital or a care home, it has no day of inactivity. If a public holiday then falls on an employee's rest day, they get a substitute day on one of their working days (FPS Employment, accessed 22 October 2026).

Part-time employees

A part-time employee with a fixed schedule gets the public holidays that fall on their own working days. The fixed days off in a part-time schedule do not count as days of inactivity for the business. Someone who is always off on Thursdays therefore gets no substitute day for Ascension Day on Thursday 6 May. And if the substitute day you set for everyone falls on a fixed day off of the part-time employee, that day is lost (FPS Employment, Acerta, accessed 22 October 2026). A part-time employee without a fixed schedule gets no substitute day for public holidays that fall outside their working days, but does receive compensatory pay (FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026).

How do you set a substitute day?

For a substitute day, you follow a fixed order of consultation that starts with your Joint Committee and ends with an individual agreement with the employee. Whichever route you take, you post the signed and dated notice listing the substitute days before 15 December 2026. Each step only comes into play if the previous one has decided nothing:

1. The Joint Committee. A sector decision takes priority. The Minister of Employment must receive it before 1 October of the previous year, and it only applies once a royal decree has made it generally binding.
2. The works council, if the sector sets nothing.
3. The union delegation, if there is no works council or it decides nothing.
4. The employees together, if there is no union delegation or no agreement is reached.
5. An individual agreement between you and each employee.

If nobody decides, the public holiday is replaced by the first normal working day after it (FPS Employment, Securex, Liantis, accessed 22 October 2026; Public Holidays Act, Articles 7 to 9, accessed 23 October 2026).

The notice before 15 December 2026

However you set the days, you post a signed and dated notice on your business premises before 15 December 2026. It lists the substitute days and the rules for compensatory rest when someone works on a public holiday. You attach a copy to the work regulations and send one to the Supervision of Social Legislation (Securex, Liantis, accessed 22 October 2026).

The law speaks of posting it on the premises (Public Holidays Act, Article 13, accessed 23 October 2026). According to Securex, an email or an intranet message is therefore not enough, whereas Acerta still accepted an intranet message in a 2017 article (Acerta, page in Dutch, accessed 23 October 2026). To be safe, actually put the notice up.

Within the same year

The substitute day falls in 2027 itself: you may not carry it over to 2028 (Securex, Liantis, accessed 22 October 2026). Within that year the date is free, but you set it through the consultation route above. The substitute day may therefore also come before the public holiday.

What do you do with bridge days in 2027?

A bridge day is not a public holiday: your employees have no right to it. In 2027, the bridge days are Friday 7 May, after Ascension Day, and Friday 12 November, after Armistice Day. You can put a substitute day on them, make them a collective holiday or let your employees request a day of leave.

The first option is the obvious one: you have to set three substitute days in 2027 anyway. If you put two of them on 7 May and 12 November, your employees get two long weekends without having to take a day of leave. Acerta gives the example of a substitute day that creates a bridge (Acerta, page in Dutch, accessed 23 October 2026).

If you opt for a collective closure, the rules on collective holidays apply. The sector decides first. If it does nothing, you need an agreement through the works council, the union delegation or the employees, and the dates go into the work regulations. So you cannot simply impose such days yourself (Securex, accessed 22 October 2026; Acerta, page in Dutch, accessed 23 October 2026).

If you set nothing, every employee can request a day of leave for the bridge day, and all those requests land on the same day. Sound familiar? Then agree in advance on a deadline for requests and on who gets priority. For an overview of every type of leave, see our article on the leave system in Belgium.

Can your staff work on a public holiday?

Only where Sunday work is allowed: in certain sectors, such as hospitality and care, or for certain work, such as urgent work on machines. Anyone who works on a public holiday gets paid compensatory rest on a normal working day within six weeks, and you notify the Supervision of Social Legislation. The law provides for no extra supplement, but your sector may impose one.

This is where it gets legal. The Public Holidays Act prohibits work on a public holiday, but makes an exception for cases where the Labour Act allows Sunday work (FPS Employment, accessed 22 October 2026; Acerta, Acerta, Sunday and public holiday work, accessed 23 October 2026). In retail, your staff may in principle work on Sundays from 8am to 12 noon. Some shops may employ their staff all day every Sunday, others only on a limited number of Sundays a year. Where Sunday work is restricted in this way, a royal decree sets how much work is allowed on public holidays (FPS Employment, Sunday rest, Public Holidays Act, Article 10, accessed 23 October 2026).

If you have someone work on a public holiday, notify the Supervision of Social Legislation no later than eight days after the public holiday, and in any case before the day of compensatory rest (Public Holidays Act, Article 13, Securex, accessed 23 October 2026).

How much compensatory rest?

1. More than 4 hours worked: a full day of compensatory rest.
2. 4 hours or less: half a day, before or after 1pm. On that day, the employee works no more than 5 hours.
3. Part-time employees: compensatory rest equal to the hours they worked on the public holiday.

The compensatory rest falls on a normal working day of the employee, within six weeks of the public holiday. For some sectors, a royal decree sets a different period (FPS Employment, Securex, accessed 22 October 2026; Acerta, accessed 23 October 2026).

What pay do you owe?

For the hours worked on the public holiday, you pay the normal wage, with the premiums you would also pay on a normal day, such as a night premium. You pay the day of compensatory rest as a normal working day. There is no statutory public holiday supplement. If the hours are overtime, you pay, in principle, a 100% overtime premium, just as on a Sunday (FPS Employment, Acerta, accessed 22 October 2026).

There is an important exception: since 1 April 2026, no overtime premium is due for net voluntary overtime. This applies to a maximum of 240 hours a year, and in hospitality to a maximum of 360 hours if you use a registered cash register system (FPS Employment, voluntary overtime, Securex, accessed 25 October 2026).

Many Joint Committees do provide a premium, though. In hospitality (JC 302), it is €2 per hour actually worked, up to a maximum of €12 per Sunday or public holiday (FPS Employment, JC 302 information sheet, SD Worx, accessed 22 October 2026). In JC 302, a night premium does not come on top: you only pay any difference between the two. When an hour counts as overtime is explained in our article on paying overtime. For night and weekend premiums, see our article on night and weekend work.

What does a public holiday cost in pay?

A public holiday on which nobody works is paid as if the employee had worked: same wage, same premiums. If you do have someone work, you pay the hours worked, any sector premium and, later, a paid day of compensatory rest. That day of rest does replace a day on which the employee would otherwise have worked: on balance, a public holiday worked mainly costs you the sector premium, plus possibly a replacement during the compensatory rest.

Note one condition: an employee who is absent without a valid reason on the normal working day before or after the public holiday is not entitled to public holiday pay. Illness, holiday or short leave count as valid reasons (FPS Employment, Securex, accessed 22 October 2026).

Worked example: hospitality on Whit Monday

Assumptions: a full-time hospitality worker in JC 302 with an hourly wage of €16. This is an example amount: if the pay scale for the job is higher in 2027, that pay scale applies. The working day is 7.6 hours. On Whit Monday, 17 May 2027, the worker does a normal day of 7.6 hours, with no overtime and no night work. All amounts are gross, excluding employer contributions.

Item	Amount
Pay for the hours worked: 7.6 x €16	€121.60
Hospitality premium: 7.6 x €2 = €15.20, capped at €12	€12
Paid day of compensatory rest within six weeks: 7.6 x €16	€121.60
Total for the public holiday worked	€255.20

If the worker does not work that day, you only pay the public holiday pay: €121.60. In wages, you therefore pay €133.60 more. But that day gives you a full working day, and the compensatory rest later costs you a working day. On balance, you pay the hospitality premium of €12 extra, plus possibly a replacement during the compensatory rest.

What about students, flexi-jobbers and temp workers?

The Public Holidays Act also applies to student workers and temp workers: if a public holiday falls during their contract, it is paid, by you for your student workers and by the temp agency for your temp workers. Even after a short contract has ended, you may still owe a public holiday. That depends on how long the employee worked for you (FPS Employment, Acerta, accessed 22 October 2026).

Take care with student workers under 18: young workers may in principle not work on a public holiday, except in cases allowed by royal decree, such as in hospitality (FPS Employment, young workers, Acerta, accessed 23 October 2026).

Public holidays after the contract ends

1. Less than 15 days of service: no public holiday pay after the contract ends.
2. From 15 days to 1 month: pay for one public holiday in the 14 days after the end.
3. More than 1 month: pay for all public holidays in the 30 days after the end.

This only applies if the employee stayed in service without an interruption of their own making (Royal Decree of 18 April 1974, Article 14, accessed 23 October 2026). The obligation lapses if the employee resigns without serious cause, if you dismiss for serious cause, or as soon as the employee starts with a new employer (FPS Employment, Securex, accessed 22 October 2026). According to Acerta, this entitlement is often overlooked for students.

An example. A student works for you from 1 to 23 December 2026 inclusive, so between 15 days and a month. Christmas Day, Friday 25 December 2026, falls within the 14 days after the end: you pay that day, unless the student has started working elsewhere in the meantime. 1 January also falls within those 14 days, but you only pay one public holiday.

Flexi-jobbers, extras and temp workers

According to SD Worx, a flexi-jobber who works on a public holiday is also entitled to compensatory rest and, in hospitality, to the premium of €2 per hour (SD Worx, accessed 22 October 2026). That premium counts towards the maximum flexi-wage (Securex, accessed 22 October 2026). For occasional workers in hospitality, the extras, you do not have to pay the public holidays that fall within 30 days of their departure (Securex, accessed 23 October 2026).

A temp worker follows the user company's substitute days. If two temp contracts with the same temp agency and the same user company are interrupted only by a public holiday, possibly together with days of inactivity such as a weekend, the temp agency still pays that day (Securex, accessed 22 October 2026). If you are bringing in extra people in December, also read how to quickly hire temporary staff during the year-end rush.

Which mistakes should you avoid?

Many of the rules on public holidays are formal, and that is exactly what the social inspectorate checks. During an inspection, inspectors look among other things at whether ten public holidays have been recorded per full-time employee. If you do not follow the rules, you risk a penalty under the Social Criminal Code (Securex, SD Worx, accessed 22 October 2026). These five mistakes are easy to avoid:

1. Posting the notice too late, or only emailing it. It must be up before 15 December 2026.
2. Carrying a substitute day over to 2028. That is not allowed.
3. Having lost hours made up. You may not have employees work extra on other days to make up for the hours of a public holiday, except in cases allowed by royal decree (Public Holidays Act, Article 5, accessed 23 October 2026). According to Securex, doing so is a punishable offence.
4. Putting compensatory rest on a day that is already off. Compensatory rest must coincide with a normal working day, not with a day of rest for overtime or a working-time reduction day (FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026).
5. Not notifying the Supervision of Social Legislation when someone works on a public holiday. You must do so no later than eight days after the public holiday, and before the day of compensatory rest.

How to build public holidays and substitute days into your planning is explained in our article on creating a work schedule.

How should you prepare for 2027?

Start now: the deadline, before 15 December, falls in the middle of the busy year-end period, and a decision through the works council or the employees takes time. These five steps settle 2027, from checking with your sector to planning compensatory rest and short contracts.

Step 1. Check whether your Joint Committee has already set substitute days for 2027.

Step 2. Work out, per working arrangement, which public holidays you must replace. In a five-day week, these are 1 May, 15 August and 25 December.

Step 3. Choose the substitute days in 2027, possibly on the bridge days of 7 May and 12 November, through the right consultation route.

Step 4. Before 15 December 2026, post the signed and dated notice, with the rules for compensatory rest. Attach a copy to the work regulations and send one to the Supervision of Social Legislation.

Step 5. Plan who works on public holidays, with compensatory rest within six weeks, notify the Supervision of Social Legislation within eight days and before the day of compensatory rest, and check for short contracts whether you still owe a public holiday.

What employers should remember

• In 2027, three public holidays fall at the weekend: 1 May, 15 August and 25 December. In a five-day week, you need three substitute days in 2027.
• The notice goes up before 15 December 2026, signed and dated, with a copy attached to the work regulations and one for the Supervision of Social Legislation.
• Bridge days are not an entitlement, but a substitute day on 7 May or 12 November can head off a lot of leave requests.
• Work on a public holiday is only allowed where Sunday work is allowed, with paid compensatory rest within six weeks and a notification to the Supervision of Social Legislation within eight days and before the day of compensatory rest.

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How Recruit helps you

Public holidays, compensatory rest and short contracts around the end of the year call for accurate payroll processing. Recruit brings that payroll processing together on one platform.

With Recruit:

• Accurate payroll - Pay aligned with your Joint Committee and the legislation in force
• Flexible staff paid correctly - Students, flexi-jobbers and temporary staff, each according to their status
• Dimona and social documents - Immediate employment declaration and records kept
• Clocking app - Your staff clock in and out via the clocking app, even on a public holiday
• Personal support - On weekdays from 9am to 5pm, and for priority matters a personal account manager directly on the line

Try Recruit or contact our HR experts for tailored advice.

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Frequently asked questions

Is 11 July a paid public holiday?

Not by law. 11 July is the holiday of the Flemish Community, not a statutory public holiday. You only have to grant it if your sector or your business makes it a day off (Securex, accessed 22 October 2026).

What if I do not set any substitute days?

Then every public holiday that falls on a day of inactivity is replaced by the first normal working day after it. In a five-day week, in 2027 that means Monday 3 May, Monday 16 August and Monday 27 December. If you do not post the notice, you also risk a penalty.

What if an employee is ill on a public holiday?

If the public holiday falls within the first 30 days of an illness or accident, you pay the public holiday pay. For most other suspensions, the period is 14 days. During annual holidays, the public holiday is always paid (FPS Employment, Acerta, accessed 22 October 2026).

Can an employee choose the substitute day?

Yes, if that is agreed through the normal consultation route and stated in the notice. The employee then chooses the day, just like a day of annual holiday, but must take it by 31 December 2027 at the latest (FPS Employment, accessed 22 October 2026; Acerta, accessed 23 October 2026).

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The information in this article is provided for general guidance only and does not replace professional legal advice. Labour legislation changes regularly. Always consult the legislation in force or contact an HR expert for advice suited to your situation.